Starting social media with a blank slate: ‘The algorithm took me from Irish mammies to immigration in 10 minutes’

How much is real-life anger fueled by what we see online? TikTok, X and YouTube are often blamed for pushing divisive content, so we started new accounts from scratch to see what they would serve us

Saoirse Hanley started fresh social media accounts on a second phone. Photo: David Conachy

Saoirse Hanley and John Meagher

Today at 02:30

The writing on the wall reads “Paul Murphy RIP” but Paul Murphy is not dead. The People Before Profit TD was merely the latest politician to be threatened in and around his home, after the epitaph was spray-painted on a nearby wall last weekend.

Last month, Minister Roderic O’Gorman was forced to call gardaí after masked men gathered outside his house, while Minister for Justice Helen McEntee received bomb threats. Also last month, a short video of Leo Varadkar being subjected to homophobic abuse was widely viewed.

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